Dishonored - The Corroded Man (Video Game Saga)

I'm rather wary of video game fiction as a general rule. Not because I don't want to give it a try but because so much of it is a shameless cash-in. There's exceptions, mind you, but they tend to be diamonds in the rough. Nevertheless, I wanted to give this work a try and see if it was better than the forgettable Wyrmwood Deceit comic book. I'm a huge Dishonored fan so I was hoping Adam Christopher would do a great job. Did he? Well, he did an entertaining job, which was better than I expected. It's not going to convince anyone video game adaptation work is a new medium but it's still a pretty decent adventure novel even without the tie-in elements. The premise of the book is Zhukov, a prisoner from the Russian-esque Tyvia, escapes from a frozen prison with the aid of his newly-acquired supernatural powers. Wanting nothing more than revenge against the people who unjustly imprisoned him, he sets out to Dunwall in order to acquire the means of doing so. Meanwhile, a year before the events of Dishonored 2, Empress Emily Kaldwin is enjoying her newfound freedom gained by studying as a assassin under her father, Corvo Attano. Emily chances on Zhukov's newly-acquired minions in a revived Whalers assassins guild while they're robbing graves, putting her on a collision course with the organization. I really liked the Corroded Man for giving me what I wanted from Dishonored 2, which was Corvo and Emily working together on a case. Seeing the two play off one another is quite entertaining and Adam Christopher captures an easy going relationship which is quite heartwarming. Corvo Attano wants to protect his daughter from all the evils of the world and has become a very competent spymaster as a result. However, he also is too protective and has indulged his daughter too much as she's become focused more on adventure than ruling her country. Zhukov is a great character and represents a nice alternative to the somewhat whitewashed Corvo and Princess Emily. He's definitely a "High Chaos" run of the standard Dishonored protagonist and not without his own understandable grievances as well as discernible code of honor. Much of the book is about finding out what he's got planned and how it all fits together with the setting's mythology. Despite looking like a combination of Hush and Freddy Krueger, he's a character you can believe people will follow. The supporting cast is also quite good with Gaylia as a former member of the Whalers assassins guild and the introduction of Empress Emily's lover Wyman, who is kept gender neutral for reasons which I think were well-intentioned but limit Wyman's development. I even liked the inclusion of Esme Boyle, minor character from the original Dishonored game who has gone on to be a high society matriarch. If I have any complaints about the plot, it's that the book is a little too morally straight-laced. Dishonored was a game where the "good" play through had you send two men to be worked to death in a mine, a woman kidnapped to be given to her stalker, and another branded as a heretic in a society which ostracizes said beings. I would have preferred a little more darkness from our heroes but this is a complaint which extends to Dishonored 2 and might not have been the author's choice. The writer also feels the need to make things feel a little more 'gamey' than they necessarily should. Much is made of Princess Emily sneaking around and basically playing out levels as if she were a video game character. I would have preferred a greater focus on the emotions of the characters and their sense of danger. I also felt a number of interesting characters were unceremoniously killed off when their stories had been laid out for something more. Some readers will dislike this sort of writing style but I was okay with it. I will forgive a lot for a chance to get back to Dunwall and visit with old friends. The Corroded Man is full of action, adventure, and quite a bit of character development for the series' protagonists. I recommend fans of the series pick it up and even those who aren't familiar with the games will probably enjoy it as a fun steampunk fantasy adventure. I hope future books will recapture the original game's darkness, though.9/10

SPOILERS IN REVIEW, TREAD CAREFULLY.Pros: It's Dishonored, so there's a lot of callbacks to lore we saw in the games. Reading something about one of your favorite games is always really cool; it feels like you're reading good, published fanfiction. Everyone seemed to be somewhat in-character and Zhukov was pretty interesting. The twin-bladed knife making an appearance was neat. Tyvia isn't touched on much in the games, either, so it was cool to see someone from there and get to know a little more about how Tyvia worked. Also, Wyman's gender was only revealed once during the story which I was happy about because I had heard that Wyman was meant to be nonbinary or open to interpretation but better beta reading would have sufficed here since the team did let one pronoun slip through. It was working fine with no pronouns so removing it wouldn't have been difficult or changed anything for the worse.Cons: Unfortunately, a lot more than the pros. While there were far less typos than I'm used to (as an avid reader of Kindle Unlimited, where beta reading is either not done at all or done sloppily), there were still a few, which seems upsetting in a book priced for eight dollars that was (supposedly) read by at least one member of the Arkane team. At one point, the author even misspells a somewhat-major character's name -- TWICE. Her name is Waverly, but the author misspelled it as Waverley twice and then wrote it correctly all the other times. This isn't even a name he made up; it's easy to google "waverley boyle" and see it's spelled Waverly, if one is unsure. There was another typo or two in the book which had me disappointed, since it's supposed to be a professional book, you know? Anyway, that didn't ruin it for me, but it was upsetting to see. Previous reviews mention that some parts drag on for too long, which is true. The book feels like you're playing the game, just not in the good way. It feels like you're going through the missions which can take a while if you're not speedrunning it, so you're at the same location for a long time. That's what happened with the book. We were at certain major locations for a long time, to the point it started getting kind of exhausting ... and then whatever big things were supposed to happen weren't satisfying in the least. The vault wasn't a shock. Zhukov is spending the entire time going after bones so it was pretty obvious what was in there. The future Emily was seeing where she's a dictator and Corvo is a murderous maniac makes little to no sense. Why would any of that happen, and even if it did, why would Corvo go along with this weird fantasy Emily is having in that future of killing people just for kicks? Super 3edgy5u ... and no explanation was given. And then the way Galia's story ended ... was just anticlimactic, and not in an interesting way, since I am pretty interested in anticlimaxes, but this was just done poorly. For shock value, really. Also, just a small annoyance, but I got frustrated at the "excerpt from a [insert book description here]" under the quotes for every chapter (and tbh the excerpts didn't even need to be included as it should be pretty obvious that the people reading have played the game and probably found the books that were being quoted, so at this point it's just meaningless repetition). Like "excerpt from a volume on nobility ranks and positions" or whatever, we can kind of gather that from the content ... there were only like one or two quotes that actually needed the "excerpt from a" explanation. The rest it just felt like it was assumed we were stupid and couldn't figure out what was being talked about.And finally, one last complaint -- the "all people were equal, but some were more equal than others" or whatever about Tyvia. Like, I'm sorry, I love Animal Farm as much as the next person, but it is REALLY lame when someone resorts to putting something like that in a PUBLISHED WORK. Like, in fanfiction on the internet for fun? Maybe you can make it work. But referencing a published book in your own published book like that? Super tacky, and super boring that the author saw a fantasy version of Russia/China/East Asia and immediately was like "Oh, it's like Russia? So I should focus entirely on communism, labor camps, frigid temperatures, and Animal Farm." I'm not gonna write an essay about it but I hope you see what I mean when I say this was really tacky and stupid to put in there and I literally rolled my eyes when reading it.The only things I found myself really brightening up about were Slackjaw having a role and Corvo's Outsider abilities being talked about since I was half-expecting they might be forgotten entirely. Though I'm really not sure why Corvo is friendly with the Overseers, but that might be personal bias. I know the monarchy has ties with the Overseers and employs them when necessary but it just felt ... really weird, after seeing the events of the first game, even with Corvo having saved Overseer Martin ... he was a traitor to them, anyway, so Corvo shouldn't have had any positive feelings about the Abbey. But, like I said, personal bias, so I'll leave that one alone.Overall, it wasn't a terrible book! It wasn't. I just didn't really have a good time reading it. I only pushed on because I paid money for it and I knew that it could be good in some parts, and I just needed to find those parts. The author's description is alright, it doesn't get too boring, it's just ... tacky with errors that even unpublished fanfiction authors know how to avoid. It would have felt far more appropriate seeing this on AO3 rather than a published work. Not that fics on AO3 are bad -- in fact, a lot of them are better than this book -- but it's something I would have expected to find with comments below it telling how the author could improve, which isn't something I want to see in a published book that was assumedly reviewed by the creators.Buy it if you want, just don't expect a masterpiece, because it's definitely not.

I understand where the negative reviews are coming from, but I was a little apprehensive about this book, and therefore had low expectations. I ended up enjoying it for what it was. I love everything Dishonored, and this book gave me some satisfaction until the release of the second game. I liked getting the background info on certain characters, and seeing what came directly after the events of the first game. It doesn't seem to touch on anything related to the second game at all (at least from what we know of it), so that may be disappointing for some. It takes place 15 years after the first game, although there is some jumping back and forth in time that gets confusing if you don't pay attention at the beginning of every chapter (I am guilty of this). Emily is portrayed as someone who still has a lot of learning and growing up to do. I found myself frustrated with her character and her tendency to involve herself in danger without really knowing what she was doing. And Corvo wasn't as ruthless as you expect or hope him to be. But, I enjoyed the storyline overall, and found it easy to read. If you love Dishonored, it's worth it to check this one out and make the judgements for yourself.

For those unaware Dishonored the Corroded Man is a novel based on the video game series, more specifically it bridges the gap between the first and second games so if you haven't played at least the first one I can't imagine you will get a whole lot from it to be honest. I started this in preperation to play Dishonored 2 as I loved the first game and I would say it was worth it.Set quite a long time after the first game, Emily Kaldwin is now a young adult and Empress of the Isles overseeing the rebuild of Dunwall after the rat plague and murder of her mother. She is however, bored, and at night time has set about sneaking out of the palace leaping rooftops and climbing around using the training of her Royal Protector, Spy Master, and father Corvo Attani. On one of these trips she spies a group grave robbing which leads her and Corvo on an adventure as it is far more sinister than it first appears.I have read quite a few video game adaptions now (Dead Space, Halo, Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc) and they have been of varying quality with a few good and bad, I would say that Corroded Man while certainly not winning any awards is one of the better ones overall. The story moves at a fair pace, it's pretty easy reading and seems to fit in well with the Dishonored world and both Emily and Corvo get good treatment with the perspective switching between them as the story unfolds. There seems to be a bit of an assumption that the reader has played the downloadable content though which had several references, I haven't, but found it pretty clear what was going on even with that. My one gripe is actually a chapter towards the end which is hugely out of place both chronologically and in relevence, almost feels like it's been left there from an earlier draft by accident and even then it should be towards the start of the book but doesn't harm it overall.If you're a fan of the first game I would say it's worth the £2-3 investment for a little more of the universe. It shouldn't take to long to read and quite a bit of care seems to have been put into it to get the tone and references right. Looking forward to the second game to carry it on.+ Easy to read.+ Ties in nicely with the Dishonored lore from the first game expanding on it.+ Emily and Corvo both get a fair amount of fleshing out.- Strange chapter at near the end which feels like a fragment.

I'm a huge fan of Arkane Games' Dishonored series. The game world is so beautifully realized in all three titles.So when I came across this - the first of three offical novelizations by Adam Christopher - I was intrigued and bought the set.So far I've only read The Corrroded Man. A solid and highly entertaining novel. No spoilers. Suffice to say it's an accomplished intriguing read that keeps the suspense and atmosphere of the games very much alive on the page. Worth your coin if you're a Dishonored fan (otherwise you'll not understand what's going on).I'm looking forward to reading the other two books.

A very satisfying story. Played both Dishonoured 1 and 2 before reading this book and it fits really well between them. It's story is compelling and was probably of a separate game (maybe Dishonoured 1.5?) but the author does a really good job of providing a satisfying story through a book rather than through a game. Originally, I was a little hesitant buying this book since I thought it was just someone trying to flinch off the beautiful Dishonoured series, but I decided to take a risk and I have never been so wrong. The book gives a brief introduction to the many lands and factions within the Dishonoured world but at the same time telling a story of the Empress Emily and her Royal Protector Corvo in a different adventure (15 years after the first game), but there are other characters that the book focus on (e.g. Galia Fleet, appointed leader of the Whalers gang!). I think any dishonoured fan will enjoy this book. As long as you have played the first game, you will understand the story.

This book acts as a bridge between the story of the first game and the second, and oh boy is it a satisfactory bridge. The story is gripping and won't let me put it down!This book builds upon the already rich lore of the universe of Dishonored. It will tell what of how Dunwall has evolved while under Emily's rule and where many characters have ended up in the fifthteen year gap between the games. Such as the Whalers, certain members of the Loyalists, etc.It's also important to note how well Corvo and Emily are handled here. (Very well.) It's interesting to see how Emily has grown and the empress she has become. We see Corvo in way that the first game didn't show and what choices he has had in the canon story.A excellent buy for any fan of the first game and a good way to fill the wait for the second game.

I'm probably biased because Dishonored is one of my favourite games but I thought this book escaped the typically mediocre trappings of a video game tie-in novel. The book presents an engaging story with a charismatic villain and a healthy dose of occult intrigue; the book fits well into the Dishonored Universe without following a video game style plot. As a fan of the series the frequent callbacks to people and places from the games provided interesting developments to the lore. Readers unfamiliar with the franchise might get a bit lost but I would recommend this to any fans of the game series.